The Fight for Health Care Continues: This Time on the South Side

If you are shot on Chicago’s South Side you are 21 percent more likely to die before you reach a hospital trauma center, a panel of doctors, nurses and researchers told legislators during a state hearing Tuesday.

University of Chicago student Joe Kaplan, upon learning his age disqualified him from receiving care at his university’s trauma care center, said: “It really worries me. With the other students, a lot of them don’t realize this affects them. It’s not something the university advertises.”

Traumatic injury is the leading cause of death in the United States among individuals ages 1 through 44, according to the study, which used 19 years of death from gunshot wound and ambulance transit time data from 1999-2009. The first trauma center in Chicago was opened at the Cook County Hospital in the mid-1960’s, according to a study conducted by WBEZ.

Unfortunately, a trauma center is “a tremendous money-losing venture,” said Verhoef. The total cost of a fully staffed trauma center is approximately $2.7 million each year, according to a study conducted by the U.S. National Library of Medicine.

The hearing was only the first of many, said Hunter. Community leaders are asking the Department of Public Health to study the feasibility of a new trauma center on the South Side. They are also asking the University of Chicago to raise the age limit on their children’s trauma center from 16 to 21.